Meet The Scientists

Center for Microbial Ecology Scientists
Listed by Research Discipline

Click HERE to see Center for Microbial Ecology scientists
listed in alphabetical order by their last names.

 

Senior Scientists at the
Center for Microbial Ecology

Click on one of the topics below to meet scientists whose research involves that topic. The scientists are listed in alphabetical order within each topic area. Click on the upward-pointing arrow at the top of each topic section to return to this list of topics.

Microbial Ecology And Physiology

John A. Breznak, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology. Microbial diversity; Biochemistry of microbial symbioses; Microbial degradation of plant materials.


Frank B. Dazzo, Ph.D.

Professor, Departments of Microbiology and Crop and Soil Sciences. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of plant-microbe interactions, especially the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis; Adhesion; Root colonization; Microscopy of microbial communities in situ.

 

Larry J. Forney, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology. Mechanisms of microbial adaptation; Catabolic pathway evolution; Influence of environmental factors on genome plasticity and microbial community structure.

 

John Holt, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology; Editor-in-Chief of Bergey's Manual Trust. Bacterial taxonomy and nomenclature; Microbial diversity; Isolation and characterization of microorganisms from natural habitats.

Michael J. Klug, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology and W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. Microbial diversity and function in soil communities; Microbial production of trace gases; Insect-microbial interactions.

Patrick J. Oriel, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology. Molecular biology and genetics of Bacillus and thermophilic microorganisms; Microbial biotechnology.

Eldor A. Paul, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils; Modeling soil microbial processes and populations; Microbial biomass measures.

C.A. Reddy, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology. Physiology and molecular biology of lignin biodegradation by wood-rotting fungi; Physiology and ecology of anaerobes; Veterinary bacteriology.

Thomas M. Schmidt, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology. Molecular approaches to microbial evolution and ecology; physiological basis for patterns of microbial distribution and population size.

James M. Tiedje, Ph.D.

Professor, Departments of Microbiology and Crop and Soil Sciences. Ecology, physiology, and biochemistry of pollutant biodegradation and denitrification; Molecular methods to study microbial communities.


Molecular Biology

Michael Bagdasarian, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology. Molecular biology of gram negative bacteria, especially broad host range plasmid biology, metabolism of aromatic compounds and extracellular protein secretion..

 

Wendy C. Champness, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology. Microbial genetics; Genetic regulation of Streptomyces differentiation and antibiotic production..

 

Frans J. de Bruijn, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory. Director, MSU Genetics Program. Molecular genetics of symbiotic nitrogen-fixation; Environmental control of gene expression; Plant gene expression; Rhizosphere molecular ecology..

 


Dennis W. Fulbright, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Gene flow among compatible fungi; Evolution of speciation in plant pathogens.

Julius H. Jackson, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology; Evolution of bacterial genes and the conserved order of gene arrangement on the chromosomes of bacteria; Evolution of pathways for bacterial detoxification of heavy metals.

Loren Snyder, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology. Regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes; Bacteriophage genetics and molecular biology; Gene transfer in nature.

Michael F. Thomashow, Ph.D.

Professor, Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Microbiology. Environmental control of gene expression; Bdellovibrio development; Cold acclimation in plants and bacteria.

C. Peter Wolk, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Development and regulation in cyanobacteria.

Engineering

Peter Adriaens, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Michigan. Microbial transformation of chloroaromatic compounds, especially reductive dechlorination of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans; Enhancement of bioremediation in situ.

Craig S. Criddle, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Control of microbial communities in engineered systems; Discovery and application of novel microorganisms for hazardous waste treatment; Fate and effects of hazardous contaminants.

Robert F. Hickey, Ph.D.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Head, Waste Treatment Technologies, Michigan Biotechnology Institute. Biological or couple biological and physico-chemical treatment of industrial and hazardous wastes; Development of process monitoring and control systems; Anaerobic treatment systems and biological fluidized bed reactors.

Susan J. Masten, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Chemical oxidative treatment of hazardous wastes and contaminated soils and aquifers; Combined chemical/biological treatment processes; Influence of chemical oxidants on microbial communities.

John J. McGrath, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Cryobiology; Microbial cryoperservation; Mechanisms of damage and adaptation induced by chilling and/or freezing; Cryomicroscopy; Membrane transport and membrane mechanics.

Thomas C. Voice, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Remediation of hazardous wastes in nature, especially vapor phase transport, pollutant sorption-desorption, biologically activated carbon reactors, analytical chemistry.

R. Mark Worden, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering. Bioreactor engineering; Immobilized cell reaction kinetics; Modeling of biological processes.

 

Ecology/Evolutionary Biology

Katherine L. Gross, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Departments of Botany and Plant Pathology, Zoology and W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. Plant population and community ecology; Competitive interactions and resource acquisition in successional and agricultural communities; Determinants of diversity.

Richard E. Lenski, Ph.D.

Hannah Distinguished Professor, Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences, Microbiology and Zoology. Evolutionary biology and population genetics; Coevolution of bacteria and their viruses and plasmids; Relationships between fitness and mechanisms of genetic change.

G. Philip Robertson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Ecosystem processes, especially nutrient cycling and landscape scale analysis; Tropical and agroecosystems; Trace gas emissions.

Biochemistry

Robert Hausinger, Ph.D.

from Minnesota, postdoc MIT; Purification and characterization of microbial dehalogenases, characterization of mechanism, active site, role of metal in catalysis and transformation. Experience with aromatic degradative enzymes.

 

Rawle Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Tertiary structure of macromolecules, especially carbohydrates and lipids, Rhizobium surfaces, extremophile membranes.

 

Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry

Sharon J. Anderson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Science, Mineral surface chemistry, interaction of natural organic compounds with mineral surfaces, soil physical chemistry, mechanistic studies on DNA-mineral binding.

Stephen A. Boyd, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Environmental soil chemistry, mechanisms affecting pollutant bioavailability in soils, organic cation modified clays to enhance pollutant retention, clay catalysis of pollutants.

John Frost, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Chemistry. Biocatalysis, enzyme mechanisms, chemical synthesis. Assembly and disassembly of heteroatoms. Biosynthesis of industrial chemicals from renewable resources (glucose).

Nathaniel Ostrom, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences. Study of biological processes in soils and sediments using 15N isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

Peggy H. Ostrom, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry; Use of stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes to evaluate sources and cycling of organic materials in nature; Evaluation of energy transfers within modern and ancient food webs based on isotopic measurements.

Mathematics and Computer Science

Frank C. Hoppensteadt, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Mathematics, Dean of Natural Sciences. Modeling of plasmid dynamics in chemostat populations, chaos.

Anil K. Jain, Ph.D.

University Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science. Pattern recognition; image processing, computer vision; exploratory data analysis; artificial neural networks.

Sakti Pramanik, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Scientific database systems, distributed database systems, knowledge based systems, computer networks.

William F. Punch III, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Artificial Intelligence/Knowledge Bases Systems Lab. Knowledge-based systems; Department of Computer Science; Data synthesis via genetic algorithms; Scientific visualization/graphics.

Education Outreach

Wynne G. Lewis, Ph.D.

Coordinator of Educational Programs, Center for Microbial Ecology. Eucaryote molecular biology..

 

 

 


Page last updated 1996